In October 2024, the law on workplace sexual harassment changed in a way that many employers still haven’t fully absorbed. The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 introduced a positive legal duty on every employer to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers, not simply to respond to it after the event.
That word “prevent” matters. Before this change, an employer’s legal exposure typically began when a complaint landed. Now, an employer with no preventative measures in place is already in breach of its duty, whether or not an incident has occurred. And where a tribunal finds sexual harassment did take place, it can uplift compensation by up to 25% if the employer failed to meet the preventative duty.
What the duty actually requires
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published technical guidance on what “reasonable steps” look like in practice. While the detail varies by organisation, the consistent themes are:
- Risk assessment, identifying where and how sexual harassment could occur in your workplace, including harassment by third parties such as customers, clients and contractors.
- Clear policies, an up-to-date anti-harassment policy that workers actually know about, covering reporting routes and consequences.
- Training, for all workers on what sexual harassment is, and for managers on how to recognise, respond to and escalate concerns.
- Reporting and monitoring, accessible channels for raising concerns, and a record of how complaints are handled.
Notice that training appears in every version of the EHRC’s expectations. A policy sitting unread on an intranet is not a reasonable step. Evidence that every worker has completed relevant training, with dates and certificates, is.
Third-party harassment is in scope
One of the most overlooked aspects of the duty is that it extends to harassment by third parties. If your staff deal with the public, hospitality, retail, transport, healthcare, events, your risk assessment must consider harassment from customers and visitors, and your preventative steps must address it. Employers who think of harassment purely as a colleague-to-colleague issue are missing a significant part of their exposure.
Why tribunals will ask about training first
When a claim reaches an employment tribunal, one of the earliest questions is what the employer did to prevent the conduct complained of. Documented, role-appropriate training is the clearest evidence available. It also works: staff who understand where the legal and behavioural lines sit are far less likely to cross them, and managers who have been trained to handle disclosures properly are far less likely to turn a complaint into a crisis.
The 25% compensation uplift makes the arithmetic stark. Sexual harassment awards are uncapped; on a £40,000 award, failing the preventative duty could add £10,000, many times the cost of training an entire workforce.
Getting compliant
We offer two online courses built specifically around the Worker Protection Act duty:
- Sexual Harassment Prevention Training, for all workers. Covers what sexual harassment is under the Equality Act 2010, real-world scenarios, third-party harassment, and how to report concerns.
- Sexual Harassment Prevention for Managers, for anyone with line-management responsibility. Covers the employer’s legal duty, handling disclosures, conducting fair investigations, and the manager’s role in prevention.
Both are completed online at the learner’s own pace, with a certificate issued on completion, giving you the audit trail the EHRC guidance expects. For teams, ask us about group enrolment at info@nationalcompliancetraining.co.uk.
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